You're invited to help celebrate There's cake and coffee tomorrow morning in the Student Life Centre, and the president's buying. Says a message this morning from the people organizing the event: "Following the great news about UW ranking #1 in Maclean's reputation survey and comprehensive universities rankings, and the recent good news about the Research and Technology Park funding from the government of Ontario, President David Johnston is inviting everyone to celebrate tomorrow in the Student Life Centre. "He has declared Tuesday UW Day, and encourages everyone on campus to wear UW apparel and colours tomorrow. Cake will be served compliments of Food Services. There will also be juice and coffee, mascots and the Warrior Band. "All staff, faculty and students are invited. Department heads are being encouraged to let staff take a break in their day and come on out to the celebration. Everything gets going at 11 a.m." Oh, and the UW Shop is joining in the spirit of things by discounting UW crested clothing 15% today and Tuesday.

UW ranked top in magazine's list

UW was ranked first in its category most recently in 1994, when it tied with Victoria. Since then it's been somewhere between 2nd and 4th each year, generally behind Simon Fraser University and the University of Guelph. The "comprehensive" category is for universities that have a broad range of programs at all levels, but don't include medical schools.

This year's first-place listing is based on 22 factors calculated by the magazine's staff. UW places at the top in several of them, including students' average entering grades, student awards, the percentage of faculty with PhDs, external awards to faculty, and alumni support.

Following UW in the rankings are Simon Fraser, Guelph, Victoria, Memorial and York.

As for the top "reputational" ranking, it's now a ten-year sweep -- Waterloo at the top as "best overall" of the comprehensive universities every year since Maclean's started doing the rankings in their present form in 1992.

Waterloo also heads the comprehensive universities for "most innovative", "highest quality" and "leaders of tomorrow", with Guelph second and Simon Fraser third in all categories.

The top medical-doctoral university, according to Maclean's, is Toronto, as it has been every year since 1994. Ranked number one among "primarily undergraduate" universities is Mount Allison, which has led the pack every year since the rankings began in 1992.

Later today the magazine will release one more diadem: the national reputational rankings covering all three categories together. UW has a nine-year run as "best overall" in that race as well, and although nothing has appeared officially this year, the Record is reporting this morning that it'll be Waterloo for a tenth straight year, followed by Toronto.

UW president David Johnston expressed thanks to the members of Waterloo's community -- students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners across Canada and worldwide -- for making "this outstanding feat" possible. "This is a tribute to the University of Waterloo's people," said Johnston. "It reflects tremendously on their talent, intellect and spirit."

Johnston noted that Waterloo has always been known as a unique and unconventional university, especially because of its world-renowned co-operative education program. "The university draws much of its strength and sense of innovation from its history, its founders and its community," he said. "This is a tremendously resilient and inventive region, which supported the University of Waterloo right from its founding. We owe a great deal to our founders and builders, the first students, faculty, staff and leaders who laid the foundations for this university's success and reputation. Reputation often lags behind reality, so this is very much a tribute to all who came before us."

Bob Harding, chair of UW's board of governors and an alumnus of the university, expressed great pleasure at the rankings. "This is truly a fantastic achievement that reflects so highly on the whole university," Harding said in a statement last night. "I want to congratulate all the students, faculty, staff and alumni for this honour.

"Waterloo is no ivory tower, but a unique institution with many strong links to our society, through co-op employers, research partnerships and social institutions, and that relevance is reflected in its reputation," said Harding, who is chairman of Brascan Corp. and will be national chair of the coming Campaign Waterloo.

Last night's statement from the UW leaders took full opportunity to boast a little about Waterloo: "The Maclean's news follows on the heels of the announcement of provincial government SuperBuild funding for the UW/regional Research & Technology Park, which will help boost the economy on many levels, and the results of the PricewaterhouseCoopers economic benefits study which singled out UW as the leading source of spin-off companies in high-tech companies in Canada."

Programming team tops in regionals

Members of the Black team are undergraduate students Graeme Kemkes and Denis Dmitriev, as well as graduate student Ming-Yee Iu.

And a correction: Friday's Bulletin quoted a UW news release that identified Gordon Chiu, one of the members of the "Gold" team, as a mathematics student. In fact, he's a 2A computer engineering student.

Winter fee statements Fee bills for the winter term 2002 will be mailed the week of November 19 to each student's mailing or home address. "Make sure your current mailing address is on file," says a memo from the finance office, "and if not, please do so immediately through Quest." Fees are due December 27, if paid by one of the several bank payment methods, or December 14, if paid by cheque or money order.

Smokers need help to quit -- from the UW news bureau

"The decision to smoke or quit isn't just a matter of individual choice. Smokers require supportive environments to kick their addiction," says Roberta Ferrence, director of the OTRU at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

She says the provincial government should institute more aggressive public awareness campaigns, eliminate smoking in all workplaces and indoor public places, and continue to raise tobacco taxes.

With more than 50 per cent of the province's 2.1 million adult smokers considering quitting in the next six months and nearly 30 per cent thinking about quitting in the next month, Ontario is second only to British Columbia in the proportion of smokers who want to break their dependency on nicotine. There is no shortage of good intentions, says Ferrence, but unless policy makers, health professionals and employers make a greater commitment to smoking cessation strategies many of these efforts to quit will fail.

Recent anti-smoking initiatives such as changes in cigarette warning labels, new advertising campaigns and increased restrictions on smoking in public have started to have an impact, according to the report, but tobacco still causes 15 per cent of all deaths and over 500,000 hospital visits in Ontario each year. More than one quarter of workers in the province continue to be exposed to environmental tobacco smoke on the job, and health care and workplace costs for smoking are estimated to be more than $3 billion annually.

Last year fewer than one in five Ontario smokers was even aware of local and provincial programs proven to help people quit smoking and only 43 per cent of smokers were advised by their doctors to quit, says Paul McDonald, an OTRU researcher and a professor at the University of Waterloo.

"There is overwhelming evidence that a variety of treatments and public policies can help people quit smoking," he says. "Receiving 10 minutes of counselling and support from your family doctor, attending a local group program and using self-help materials all increase the chances smokers will succeed in quitting. For heavily addicted smokers, intensive counselling, nicotine replacement products and drugs prescribed for quitting are effective. These support mechanisms need to be more visible and accessible to smokers."

What Imprint said Very briefly: my thanks to Imprint, the student newspaper, for its feature on the Daily Bulletin on Friday, written by Melissa Graham. The story is available on-line or, of course, on racks across campus.

Peek at the week: who's gonna speak

A forum will be held this afternoon to shed some light on the proposal to impose a $13.80-per-term student fee to expand the Student Life Centre and recreational facilities. "Students are invited to hear the Yes and No committees answer questions from members of UW's media community," says Brandon Sweet, chief returning officer for the referendum that the Federation of Students will hold later this month. The event will start at 4 p.m. in the SLC great hall.

The Waterloo Public Interest Research Group today hosts the "Quebec to Qatar Caravan: What's Wrong with Free Trade?" The "caravan" will visit "various locations" in Kitchener-Waterloo, including a forum in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Looking ahead to tomorrow: Students for Life presents a talk by Adrian Dieleman, who "will inspire his audience as he shares his tragic past and his tremendous love of life", at 5 p.m. in the SLC. I'll say more about Dieleman and this event in tomorrow's Bulletin.

Then on Wednesday:

• Celebrations of Diwali, the Hindu feast of light, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the SLC, sponsored by the Sai Baba Group.
• The drama department's production of "Twelfth Night" opens in the Theatre of the Arts (student matinee, 8 p.m. public performance).
• Gilbert Parent, former speaker of the House of Commons, speaks at 7 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre, sponsored by the Federation of Students environment commission.

And looking ahead to Friday night, St. Jerome's University presents the annual Graduate Association Lecture, to be given by retired psychology professor Peter Naus under the title "Transforming Taboos: Reflections on the Teaching of Sexuality".

CAR